“Americans, particularly in a group, are often perceived overseas as loud, even crass. Perhaps they simply have no worries about being overheard. For them, the basic assumption is that nothing you say will offend anyone. We Asians think that opening our mouths always risks offending somebody. Both sides are in danger of being misunderstood as a consequence.” SingaporeAmbassadorAsian ValuesEast Meets West Book:An Unexpected Journey: Path to the Presidency Source: An Unexpected Journey: Path to the Presidency
“In the Roman psyche the East had long been a place of danger, but also a place of plenty. The first Emperor Augustus famously said of Rome that he found a city built in brick but left it in marble – all that money had to come from somewhere. India was repeatedly described in Roman sources as a land of unimaginable wealth. Pliny the Elder complained that the Roman taste for exotic silks, perfumes and pearls consumed the city. ‘India and China [and Arabia] together drain our Empire. That is the price that our luxuries and our womankind cost us.’ It was the construction of the Via Egnatia and attendant road-systems that physically allowed Rome to expand eastwards, while the capture of Egypt intensified this magnetic pull. Rome had got the oriental bug, and Byzantium, entering into a truce with the Romans in 129 BC following the Roman victory in the Macedonian Wars that kick-started Gnaeus Egnatius’ construction of the Via Egnatia, was a critical and vital destination before all longer Asian journeys began.” Roman EmpireEast Meets WestCultural Exchanges Book:Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities Source: Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities